World in brief: Palestinian finances dire

The Palestinian Authority faces a fiscal crisis that could threaten its existence, in part because it keeps expanding the public payroll despite sharply reduced revenues, the World Bank said in a report released today.

The Palestinian economy declined in 2006 from an already low level, and the per capita gross domestic product dropped by at least 8 percent, said the report, obtained by the Associated Press.

The decline coincides with an international boycott of the Islamic militant Hamas, which came to power a year ago.

The overall level of aid has declined from about $1 billion in 2005 to more than $700 million in 2006.

About 25 percent of the Palestinian labor force is unemployed, the report said. In Gaza, the rate is even higher, 36 percent, up from 29 percent the year before.

Mogadishu, Somalia

Peacekeepers met with mortar fire

The first peacekeepers to arrive in Somalia’s capital in more than 10 years were met with a surge of violence Tuesday, as mortar rounds hit the airport during a welcoming ceremony and a deadly gunbattle broke out on the city’s crumbling streets.

The street battles involving masked gunmen killed three people and mortar rounds wounded one, all of them civilians, police said. The violence is the latest example of the volatility peacekeepers face in a country that has seen little more than anarchy for years, and where the government backed by Ethiopian troops toppled an Islamic militia only months ago.

The bloodshed came as about 400 Ugandan peacekeepers arrived in the capital to protect the Somali government and to allow for the withdrawal of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, which helped the administration topple a radical Islamic militia that controlled much of southern Somalia.

The Ugandan troops are the vanguard of a larger African Union force authorized by the United Nations to help the government assert its authority.

Miran Shah, Pakistan

Victim accused of spying for U.S.

Suspected Islamic militants shot dead a Pakistani tribesman whom they accused of spying for the United States in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

Villagers found the man’s body by the side of a road near Satar Sarobi, a village south of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal area, the official said Monday.

The victim had been shot in the head and chest, and a note written in the local Pashto language that was left with the body warned, “Those who spy for America will meet the same end.”

Washington

Trade case filed over wine, spirits

The Bush administration said Tuesday it had filed a trade case against India in a dispute over tariffs India imposes on American wine and distilled spirits.

The case, filed with the World Trade Organization, contends India is imposing tariffs ranging as high as 550 percent on imports of U.S. wine and spirits in violation of its WTO commitments that these tariffs would not exceed 150 percent.

India’s basic import duties on wine are 100 percent, while the tariff on spirits is at 150 percent, both within WTO limits. However, various government surcharges take the tariffs up to much higher levels.

The two countries will have 60 days to try to resolve the dispute through negotiations before a WTO hearing panel is convened. If the United States wins the case, it would have the right to impose penalty tariffs on products from India coming into the United States unless India dropped the disputed tariffs.